21 CommentsThe New York Daily News is reporting that missing senior Richard Ng looked up directions to the Brooklyn Bridge before leaving EC Sunday night, leading investigators to look at his disappearance as part of a suicide attempt.
A commenter on the Bwog’s original post also mentioned a similar scenario.
All of us at the Blue and White are hoping for Richard’s safe return.
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21 Comments
@Curious Does anyone know how Richard was doing in school?
@news reports and his professors have stated that he was doing well and was on track to graduate.
@Concerned This whole thing is awful, just awful. It does seem odd that he would leave campus in the middle of finals… but if he really intended to take his own life, why would he bring a backpack?
I’m going to remain hopeful and look forward to seeing him come home, whatever the explanation is.
@news video The video of this report with his parents is a heartbreaker.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_132072328.html
Be safe, Richard.
@well... uh, guys? he was using a columbia connection. no need to look at his computer — the school knows what we’re looking at anyway from one of their IP addressses.
@Not necessarily… IP addresses are assigned dynamically, and DHCP doesn’t store your computer’s MAC address (the identifier of your network card) for that long after it goes out of use.
Plus, I doubt Columbia (or any ISP) has the extra resources to log every web transaction you make. Probably they only extend that courtesy to the staff and web servers.
@tact Please be careful not to use the phrase “full article after the jump” for this article.
@Oh come on!! Don’t be silly. It’s not untactful to say “full article after the jump” — unless you’re already presuming he jumped off the bridge and you’re so fragile you can’t maturely separate the two different meanings of “jump,” one literal and the other a figurative and journalistic. Get a grip: it’s a coincidental, exceedingly minor pun.
@I disagree. Why not just leave it out?
@J Train Even if you clear your history, there are ways law enforcement can find out all the sites you’ve seen, ever. They often do that when kids go missing and they suspect they’ve met a perv off the internet.
@well it’s not quite that simple. but if they’re recent history documents, there’s a good chance there’re still traces left on the hard drive even if they’re “deleted”
@Ooh Ok, I forgot they could just look at his actual computer. I’m an idiot.
@easy as the history menu on your browser of choice
@Wait... They can access what websites you look at?
@according to civil engineering prof and City Bridge Czar Bojidar Yanev, someone diving off of the decks of the east river bridges actually has a 50% chance of surviving the fall and most suicide attempts off those bridges fail. the varizano narrows bridge deck gives a 1 in 1000 chance of survival.
the only real way to attempt suicide off the brooklyn bridge is to walk up the cables to the top of the tower and jump from there. that requires some serious climbing skill.
note: this information comes from yanev’s field trip from well before this whole thing unfolded
@insensitivity umm, just a general note to the bwog-reading community: some things are more important than showing off how much you know by putting down other people. like whoever felt the insatiable urge to post that it’s ridiculous to look up directions to the brooklyn bridge. or the people bashing on the senior interviews. honestly, and especially in the case of Richard Ng, could we try to be a little bit more sensitive to the actual situation here? i’m just hoping he gets home alright, regardless of whether he knows where the bridge is.
@oeioeioei Jimmy Vielkind is writing for the daily news?
@J Train Yes, Jimmy works at the Daily News.
Not trying to curtail free speech or anything, but out of respect to Richard and his family, there’s no need to berate someone for looking up directions.
@Jerome Avenue This isn’t meant to be taken insincere as I’d love to see a happy ending to this story. But christ, if you’ve lived in the city for four years, why in the world would you need to look up directions to the Brooklyn Bridge?
@the humanity your question really troubles me. just because you go to school in nyc doesnt mean that you have to know where everything is. you have to realize that not everyone that goes here has the time, money, or incentive to be cruising around the whole city going sight-seeing. ive only been here a year, and i know the general area where the bridge might be but if i wanted to go there right now id probably look up directions too.
why in the world would you need to look up directions to the brooklyn bridge? cuz you want to make sure you get there.
@All of us at the Blue and White are hoping for Richard's safe return. amen.